Years after serving time for betting on games he officiated, former NBA referee Tim Donaghy revisits the scandal that shook up the league.

A gambling ring run out of the Mogul Taxi company is intent on fixing college football games. Football star Harold "Red" Grange is a target for the gamblers, whose thugs try to eliminate Grange from playing. Grange's buddy Buddy is himself vulnerable to blackmail, since he has broken team rules by marrying. The crooks use all their wiles to keep Grange and Buddy from leading their team to victory.

Monogram's Whip Wilson western series was in its final year of existence when Lawless Cowboys hit the screen. Set in the contemporary West, the film casts Wilson as a Texas Ranger on the trail of a crooked gambling ring.