Kansas City, Mo ? Not even the most rabid fan of Mike Maslowski would say he’s better than Willie Lanier or Bobby Bell or any of the other great linebackers in Kansas City’s past.

But by sundown Saturday, Maslowski may have something they never possessed — the Chiefs’ single-season tackles record.

It’s currently held by Gary Spani, a former Kansas State star who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame this year and made 157 tackles for the Chiefs in 1979.

With six against Oakland on Saturday in the Chiefs’ regular-season finale, “Maz,” an overachiever with an intimidating glare who was considered too small and slow for the NFL during his college days at Division III Wisconsin-LaCrosse, will have 158.

Even if he’s shut out Saturday and stays where he is, he’ll have justified the faith coach Dick Vermeil placed in him last spring when he decided not to re-sign Donnie Edwards and named Maslowski as his right outside linebacker.

“I think he’s done a very good job,” Vermeil said. “What you see is what you get — everything he’s got on every snap.”

Maslowski has not been an overnight success by any means. Ignored by NFL scouts coming out of college, he played in the Arena Football League in 1998, then graduated to NFL Europe in ’99 before landing a job in Kansas City the following year as a backup linebacker and headhunting special teams player.

Until this year, he had never been an NFL starter

“I’ve had a decent year,” the 6-foot-1, 240-pound Maslowski said. “There are a lot of things I can still improve on.”

There are plays and games Maslowski would like to have back, particularly a 37-34 overtime loss to Denver on Oct. 10, a game in which Shannon Sharpe got loose for 214 yards receiving.

It was an NFL record for a tight end, and it was not all Maslowski’s fault.

But this defense, of which Maslowski has been such a big part, will go into the into the record book as the worst in team history. They’ve already given up a team-record 5,894 yards. If Oakland gets just four first downs and 14 points, the 2002 defense will yield team records in those statistics as well.

“I’ve made some mistakes throughout the season and done some things well,” Maslowski said. “It was a year I accomplished some things but learned a lot at the same time. I know I have to improve on other things.”

One thing that does not need improvement is his intense work ethic.

“When I was growing up, everything I did I did as hard as I could, put everything into it, spent the time and energy and believed in myself,” Maslowski said.

“Whether it was an art class or sports or anything, when I made my mind up I was going to do it, I put everything I had into it and really believed that my goal I had set for myself, I could achieve. And this was one of my goals, to be in the NFL and be a starter.”

An attitude like that has to be rewarded, Vermeil said.

“You’d like him to be a little bit bigger,” Vermeil said. “You’d like him to be two steps faster. But he still finds a way to get there. He makes plays. I’m very, very proud of him and I’m not the least bit surprised.

“He’s a football player. And the game to him is a matter of life and death. He loves to play football.”