FEATURE: Super Bowl Sunday a family affair for Darnell Nurse

OTTAWA, ON -On Super Bowl Sunday, there really is only one choice for Darnell Nurse.
The Philadelphia Eagles are the Oilers defenceman's pick to win the big game over the Kansas City Chiefs. Nurse's decision is more about family love than the city of Brotherly Love - his uncle Donovan McNabb is a Philadelphia sports legend and the Edmonton defender has many fond memories of both the team and the city.
"I used to come like once a year to watch games here when my uncle was playing," Nurse said about the city of Philly. "It's a pretty cool stadium environment here. I could just imagine what the (city) will be like on Super Bowl Sunday."
McNabb spent 11 seasons as the quarterback for the Eagles from 1999 to 2009, throwing for 32,873 yards and 216 touchdowns on his way to six Pro-Bowl selections. The second-overall pick in the 1999 NFL Draft lead Philadelphia to four consecutive NFC Championship games, culminating in an appearance in Super Bowl XXXIX. The Eagles would go on to lose to Tom Brady and the favoured New England Patriots by a 24-21 score.
For Nurse, those playoff games were some of his fondest memories watching football as a child.
"I mean, a lot of them just blend together. I remember watching a lot of playoff games. My family and I never got to go to any in person, but watching a lot of playoff games with my family on TV," Nurse said. "You have a lot of emotions going when you have a family member playing. For me, I just enjoyed it. He had a box here at the games, so we'd go and get some great chicken wings and watch the Eagles."

The Nurse family is no stranger to excellence in athletics. His father Richard Nurse was a wide receiver for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the early 1990s. His sister Kia currently plays professional basketball with the WNBA's Seattle Storm. Darnell's cousins both excel at hockey, with Sarah being a gold medal winner for Team Canada while Isaac was the captain for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the Ontario Hockey League.
Having so many family members at the peak of their professions has helped cultivate an environment perfect for a pro athlete - one where competition is everything.
"Yeah, very competitive family. It's fun. Everything from just a front yard basketball game to playing Jeopardy on the Switch," Nurse said. "It doesn't matter what we're doing, it's a very competitive environment at all times. There are no outliers, it's the whole family."
"I've always kind of been raised to be competitive in everything I did, whether it was schoolwork or the sport I played, it's just always competition. You didn't want to be the loser at the table," he added.
His family also makes Nurse different than most National Hockey League players. Under ordinary circumstances, Darnell would likely be the lone member of his household to reach the pinnacle of his sport. Instead, Nurse can draw on the dearth of experiences of nearly his entire family and all the different paths they've had to walk down.
"You can kind of lean on them. The sports may be different, but the everyday aspect of being an athlete is the same no matter what sport you're playing, male or female," Nurse said. "There's a lot that goes into preparation and recovery and the mental side of it. It's good to be able to rely on different people in different fields, as well as be someone that can be relied upon."

Nurse has seen both the good and the bad of being an athlete in a major sports market. In the case of his uncle Donovan McNabb, the quarterback was both beloved and taken for granted by the Philly faithful. Prior to his arrival, the Eagles did not have a Super Bowl appearance since the 1980 season and despite the team's sustained success, their inability to get over the hump lead to both McNabb and eventually then Eagles head coach Andy Reid leaving the team.
"Yeah, it's a tough environment. I watched my uncle for 10, 11 years playing in this market and for all the success he had, he had to deal with a lot of naysayers, haters and what not," Nurse said. "There's obviously an expectation that the city brings for work ethic, so it's a very tough market to play in, but if you can play in a market like this, you can play anywhere."
Watching what his uncle went through has prepared Nurse for both the incredible ups and downs of playing in a sports market where the fanbase in incredibly passionate and engaged. The highs of success, like last year's run to the Western Conference final, create a buzz throughout the entire town that reverberates into the locker room.
Luckily for the Oilers, they are currently riding one of those highs with an 8-0-2 record over their last 10 games and their longest consecutive point streak since December 2005. The team is currently in Ottawa preparing for Saturday's 10:30 a.m. MT contest against the Senators, before wrapping up their four-game road trip versus the Montreal Canadiens.
The Oilers are expected to stick around Montreal after Sunday's contest to watch the Super Bowl as a team, much like Darnell would have done with his family while his uncle passed for 357 yards and three touchdowns back in the 2005 contest. Nurse certainly has his support doled out for the game, but are there any other Kansas City Chiefs backers among the Oilers that want to make the game a little more interesting?
"No, not yet, but I'm sure as the day comes, we'll find a few," Nurse said. "We're worried about a few points here and then we'll find a couple of rivalries for Super Bowl."