James Ward is an American football safety for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Northern Illinois, and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft.

The Northern Illinois Huskies football team are a college football program representing Northern Illinois University (NIU) in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of college football. NIU football plays its home games at Huskie Stadium on the campus of the Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.