It’s a bit of a gamble, for sure.

But in some ways, Wade Miller is the perfect choice as the long-term president/CEO of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Who would care more about this franchise than somebody who’s always lived here, grew up watching the team and eventually played for it?

Unlike a hired gun from out of province, if Miller screws up, he’ll have to look friends, family and Bomber fans in the face every day for the rest of his life, or else move out of town.

Before Miller was a Bomber, he was a Bison, so he has a close connection to the team that shares the new stadium.

With limited size and ability, he forged his playing career through sheer determination and smarts.

Without any experience running a pro football team, he’ll need both in this gig.

It makes you wonder, as Miller signed a contract for four or five years (the Bombers wouldn’t say) on Tuesday, where this franchise would be if they’d hired him the first time around. You know, a couple of years ago, when an “extensive search” produced radio executive Garth Buchko.

Like Buchko, Miller is a Winnipegger. But the similarities end there.

Where Buchko was a ditherer, Miller is a doer.

Where Buchko wouldn’t know a zero blitz if it knocked him out of his office chair, Miller has blocked it.

“A right balance of business acumen and football experience, along with a great passion for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers,” is how board chairman Brock Bulbuck described Miller as he removed the “acting” tag he’d held since early August. “We believed from the outset that he was the man for the job, and in the intervening months we have confirmed that.”

Give the board credit for making this decision now, and not waiting until next month as it originally planned. It lets everybody know who’s in charge.

It’s funny how these things go, though. Because when the board chose Buchko back in January, 2012, it intentionally chose the opposite of the previous CEO, Lyle Bauer.

Bauer, also a former player, was in charge of both sides, football and business, even acting as de facto GM, on occasion.

It was Bauer who insisted the man with the GM’s title, Brendan Taman, fire then-head coach Dave Ritchie in 2004.

Bauer couldn’t help himself again four years later, pulling the plug on Doug Berry and giving us Mike Kelly. Against Taman’s wishes.

We all know how that turned out.

Bauer had the run of the place, and by the time he bolted the board was in the mood for a smaller personality.

After two years of Buchko, it’s ready for another pitbull, apparently.

“You see it in attitude, you see it in people’s personalities and you see it in the way they carry themselves,” Bulbuck said, explaining what makes Miller the man. “Wade has some very specific and very ambitious goals.”

Miller’s experience gives him the insight to know if his GM, head coach, even his co-ordinators, are doing a good job.

The danger is he interferes.

There are already rumblings around the CFL that the Winnipeg GM job won’t come with the autonomy it should.

Given an opportunity to refute those suspicions — he could easily have said his GM will have the final say, period — Miller didn’t.

“I’ll be involved in football, as anybody would be when it’s such a critical part of our business,” Miller said.

And his role in, say, hiring a head coach?

“I’ll work with the general manager and be that second interview you should do within any organization,” he said. “It’s such a critical position for us.

“I’ll work with the general manager and he’ll come up with the best person to move us forward.”

Miller left a touch of grey.

Occasional input and guidance is one thing.

Simply pulling the strings of a puppet GM is another, entirely.

That’s the biggest gamble I see in giving the keys to Wade Miller.