He height y, in feet, of a football x seconds after it is thrown is modeled by the equation y=-16x2+24x+1

I believe you are missing the rest of your question...

What information does the zero of the equation 6 = –16x2 + 24x + 1 represent?

In this case

 0=-16x2+24x+1-6 .............> -16x2 +24x -5 = 0

If we graph the equation, we can see that the solutions are

x1 = 0.25 and x2 = 1.25

These points represent the moment when the ball is 6 ft above the ground

(0.25 seconds after being thrown and 1.25 seconds after being thrown)

Just a second zzz