Sticky Posts, Tags and Featured Images

I’m using Twenty Fourteen Theme and for months my sticky posts stopped working properly. Nobody could fix them. Bluehost was useless for support. I finally found some small direction somewhere in WordPress that I can’t find now, saying that tags will dictate what is featured at the top, overriding sticky posts. If no tag is used, sticky posts will be featured. I started removing tags and my posts featured at the top were finally moving around. My sticky posts are now featured at the top again. I don’t see why my tags override my sticky choices but that’s my story and I’m sticky to it! UGH! Not sure about using tags now. They should not be affecting the featured posts but they do.