Professional career
Bratzke was selected in the fifth round of the 1994 NFL Draft. [3] Over the course of his career, he spent ten seasons in the NFL, splitting his time evenly between the New York Giants and the Indianapolis Colts. He joined the Colts as an unrestricted free agent on March 1, 1999.
Bratzke recorded 48 of his 56.5 career sacks from 1998 onward. During his career, he posted 11 games with multiple sacks. His 12-sack performance in the 1999 season ranks among the seven double-digit sack seasons by an individual player in franchise history, alongside Dwight Freeney (13.0 in 2002), Johnie Cooks (11.5 in 1984), Vernon Maxwell (11.0 in 1983), Jon Hand (10.0 in 1989), Tony Bennett (10.5 in 1995), and Dan Footman (10.5 in 1997). He also recorded two three-sack games with the Colts, against Washington on December 19, 1999, and Denver on January 6, 2002.
Bratzke recorded four consecutive seasons with at least 80 tackles between 1998 and 2001, posting totals of 80, 81, 93, and 80, respectively, before finishing the 2002 season with 70 tackles. In 2002, he started all 16 games for a defense that ranked seventh in the NFL in points allowed and eighth overall. It marked the third time in four seasons with the franchise that he started every game in a single year.
He opened the 2002 season strongly, recording two sacks and five quarterback pressures in the first two games at Jacksonville and against Miami. That year, Bratzke totaled 70 tackles (49 solo), six sacks, 30 quarterback pressures, five forced fumbles, three batted passes, one pass defended, and one fumble recovery. He ranked second on the team in quarterback pressures and seventh in tackles, recording four or more tackles in 13 games.
His notable performances included six tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble at Jacksonville, followed by four solo tackles, one sack, and one forced fumble against Miami. He later added a sack against Baltimore in Week 6 and registered a sack and a forced fumble versus Dallas in Week 11. In Week 15 against Cleveland, he made his first career start at defensive tackle, recording six tackles, one sack, one forced fumble, and two quarterback pressures, including a key goal-line stop that helped the team rally from a 16-point deficit. He closed the season with six tackles, four of them solo, against New York in Week 16.
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