During a Cleveland Browns game, a CBS cameraman named Harry Hinkle (Jack Lemmon) is knocked down by a running back named Boom Boom Jackson (Ron Rich) and suffers a minor back sprain. When his lawyer former brother-in-law, Whiplash Willie (Walter Matthau) counsels him to fake paralysis up to make money, the two plan a case to sue the NFL and CBS. In the meantime, Harry’s conscience begins to nag at him when Boom Boom turns out to be a well-meaning nice guy and Harry’s ex-wife (Judi West) begins to find him sympathetic. Equally suspicious, the other side’s attorneys hire a private detective (Cliff Osmond) to put Harry under 24-hour surveillance to catch him as a fraud. It takes all of Whiplash Willie’s skill to maintain the ruse. Among the experts to try to expose Harry is Professor Winterhalter (Sig Ruman) who casts a jaundiced eye on this case. Lawyers, doctors, the NFL, and television, all are exposed for lies and greed when Whiplash Willie is on the job and in the courtroom in “The Fortune Cookie.”