Whoah, hang on, you shouldn't have to remodel it even if it doesn't work for nurbs.

There has to be a way to rig nurbs, it would be a serious shortcoming if there isn't one, but even if there isn't you can convert a nurbs object to a mesh in object mode with the "Objects" menu, "Convert Object Type"

Don't have time to look into it right now, maybe later this week.