When no other N.F.L. team showed interest in Freeman, his father called Shea to inquire about the Bolts.

“I just wanted to keep playing football in any capacity and continue to stay sharp,” Freeman said Thursday in a telephone interview. “Stepping in the huddle and calling plays and that whole procedure and process, maintaining my routine that comes along with being in season, I think it gives me a better shot to perform at my highest level if a team does call me up.”

Freeman, 27, is still a long way from the N.F.L. Since the experimental league was founded in May 2014, it has faced operational and economic challenges like those of the failed United Football League (2009-12), XFL (2001) and United States Football League (1983-85).

The league, which pays players a maximum of $1,000 per game, lost money in its first season, said Brian Woods, the founder and commissioner. It also had to cancel the season’s final game because of financial problems.

This year, only six games were scheduled: three at MCU Park and three at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, N.Y. Two franchises, the Bolts and the Hudson Valley Fort, are partnerships with minor league baseball organizations, which operate and market the teams and host games at their stadiums. The only other team, the Blacktips, is operated by the league.

On Monday, the league folded the Mahoning Valley Brawlers, a franchise in Ohio. HWS Group, a sports management company, signed an agreement in May to operate the Brawlers and spent months promoting the team, selling tickets and sponsorships, and preparing to host their first game on Saturday. Last week, Woods called Michael Savit, the HWS Group founder and managing partner, to say the league planned to shut down the franchise.

“At the last minute, it was like, ‘If you don’t bail us out and take care of all these expenses, we’re not going to give you a team,’ ” Savit said. “We said: ‘Are you kidding me? No way would we do that.’ I’ve been in this business for 18 years, and I’ve been in sports marketing for 30-something years. Never have I seen something like this. It’s totally bogus, totally unprofessional.”