Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, which tracks diversity at major sports leagues, said the N.F.L. and corporate America have the same self-inflicted problem — a failure to provide access to the clubby, largely white and male world at the highest echelon of power.

“Corporations are definitely not stocked with women and minorities at its higher ranks,” Lapchick said. “It’s very much a white man’s environment.”

But unlike large corporations, which have the flexibility to create new positions and can define success in a multitude of ways, the N.F.L. has a stark racial contrast between its players and coaches that is hard to hide when millions of fans see the team sidelines every weekend. This has turned into a source of embarrassment for the league.

“When we look at the numbers, they’re not where they should be,” Troy Vincent, the executive vice president of football operations at the N.F.L., said last month. “Who can pound their chest and be proud of what we see?”

Recently, the main avenue to head coaching jobs in the N.F.L. has been experience guiding an offense, a role in which minorities have been underrepresented. Among the 32 teams this season, there were two African-American offensive coordinators and 10 defensive coordinators.

In November, the N.F.L. acknowledged that it must do more to promote diversity when it hired Dasha Smith as its chief people officer, responsible for “talent and diversity strategies” and other initiatives. Smith previously worked at Sony Music, Time Inc. and at an investment firm.