Kansas City, Mo ? It’s Dick Vermeil’s third year as head coach of a Missouri-based NFL team that’s taken off like a rocket and won its first five games.

One of his players has emerged from obscurity to become the most electrifying player in the land.

Dante Hall and the 2003 Kansas City Chiefs?

Yes. And also Kurt Warner and the 1999 St. Louis Rams.

The parallels are striking between St. Louis then and Kansas City now. The Chiefs keep winning, and Hall continues making NFL history with his amazing kick returns.

Like the Rams, the Chiefs had an overall losing record in their first two seasons under Vermeil. Then the 1999 Rams started 6-0, something the Chiefs will try to match when they visit Green Bay this week.

Warner was a former stocker at a grocery store and Arena Football League quarterback before finally getting his big chance and winding up as MVP for both the season and the Super Bowl.

Hall, on the other hand, was not exactly unknown. His breakout year was 2002, when he was named to the Pro Bowl as a kick return specialist.

But until now, probably few outside Kansas City had paid much mind to the one-time wide receiver of the Scottish Claymores who’d come into the league as a fifth-round draft choice.

Now he’s the toast of the NFL. He has set the league record with touchdown kick returns in four straight games. Until now, no one had ever had TD returns in more than two straight games. Hall needs just one more touchdown return to set the all-time NFL record for a single season.

And like Warner, Hall has Vermeil at his side to offer counsel on dealing with the rewards and pitfalls sudden fame brings.

“Some guys need it more than others. Some don’t need it at all,” Vermeil said Tuesday. “There’s two or three different ways you can go when you experience success for the first time.

“I think Kurt Warner handled it super in 1999. And I think Dante Hall will handle it real well here.”

Vermeil is extremely close to Hall, who says his coach is like a father to him.

“Dante has matured an awful lot,” Vermeil said.

The normally friendly, easy-going Hall admitted last week all the demands of the national media were troublesome.

“I’m concerned about Dante trying to be too nice, to service too many people, to try to please everybody because he is a humble kid,” Vermeil said. “He is very appreciative of the things that have taken place since he’s been here and the people who have helped him.

“But he also owes himself. He’s got to be careful. We’ve already talked with him about it. He’ll do a good job.”

Vermeil said one advantage Warner and Hall had learning to deal with hectic new status was that they play in the Midwest, and not a major media center.

“We talk about these things all the time,” he said. “That’s part of my job, to make sure we keep our focus on the right things.”

Vermeil’s advice to his emerging superstar, in fact, is like his message to the team as a whole this week.

“You can strut too early,” he said.

The Chiefs are one of four unbeaten teams left. But Vermeil is not terribly worried an outfit that was 8-8 a year ago and hasn’t made the playoffs in five years will get too full of itself.

“I’ve been around teams who start taking it for granted,” Vermeil said. “We’re too young, too inexperienced at winning games in a row to take it for granted.”