Ever since the NFL announced that Bad Bunny would be headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show this year, rumors have run rampant. Bad Bunny is insanely popular and makes sense as a headliner, but the announcement still came as a shock. Many of Taylor Swift’s fans were seemingly convinced that she would be headlining the show this time around. They pointed at some Easter Eggs and her ties to one of the league’s stars as proof. Many people believed she was a shoo-in. Once the announcement shut down those assumptions, new theories about why Bad Bunny was chosen over Swift have emerged. Taylor Swift is shutting everything down; she insists that an offer was never on the table for the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Rumors over why Taylor Swift wasn’t performing at the Super Bowl ran rampant

With just days left in September, the NFL broke up the news of feuds, celebrity sentencings, and Taylor Swift’s new album to drop a major announcement of its own. The National Football League revealed that Bad Bunny would perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show at Super Bowl LX. Once the news broke, rumors ran wild.

The internet was so sure that Taylor Swift would be headlining the show that rumors explaining why she wasn’t began circulating almost immediately. First, online chatter suggested Swift demanded to be paid for her performance. Performers are traditionally not paid for the show.  In recent days, a rumor that Swift bailed on performing when she was told she would not own the rights to footage from the game gained traction.  Swift insists none of it is true.

Taylor Swift says she was never offered the Super Bowl Halftime Show

While fans are busy debating whether the NFL refused to meet Swift’s demands, she’s off on a press tour for The Life of a Showgirl. The Super Bowl Halftime Show has come up during those conversations, though. During her much-hyped stop at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Swift addressed the rumors. She clearly wants to put them to rest once and for all.

Swift told Jimmy Fallon that it was not possible for a dispute over payment or footage rights to have broken out because a formal offer was never made. She insisted that she was actually never in talks to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show, regardless of what anyone has said. Swift took it one step further, too. She also stated that she isn’t in any feud with Roc Nation, the entertainment management company tasked with sourcing musicians for the show. Swift also has no issue with Jay-Z, who founded Roc Nation. She said, “Jay-Z has always been very good to me. Our teams are really close.” She acknowledged that her team may have discussed the show with Roc Nation over the years. Still, she insists, no formal meeting had ever taken place.

Rumors that she was performing all began when she announced her album on ‘New Heights’

While Taylor Swift has officially shut down rumors that she was ready to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show now, she’s actually the reason for the rumors in the first place. Taylor Swift is known for planting Easter Eggs in interviews, performances, and albums. Fans love finding them and discussing them. So, when she appeared on New Heights to announce The Life of a Showgirl, fans were on the lookout. They quickly locked into several “clues” they thought pointed to a Super Bowl performance.

Swift’s chatter about sourdough was taken as a hint, since the big game will be played on the San Francisco 49ers’ home turf. The team’s mascot is Sourdough Sam. That hint, coupled with two number references, had fans almost certain that Swift was set to headline. As it turns out, she is just really into her sourdough. That is evident by its actual appearance in her latest music video.

So there we have it. Taylor Swift was not offered the Super Bowl Halftime show. She didn’t turn it down, and there is always another Super Bowl. We’ll see what happens next year.